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Meghan Markle has, for years, been cast as the catalyst for the dramatic breakdown in the relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry.
However, according to long-time royal editor Russell Myers, the cracks began to appear long before the younger brother ever met the Suits star.
In his revealing new biography, William & Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, Myers has uncovered the true origins of the brothers’ fracture.
The real start of William and Harry’s feud
When William and Harry launched their Royal Foundation in September 2009, they appeared happy to be on the same path.
After William’s 2011 wedding to Catherine, the trio came across as a royal dream team.
Their joint roles and appearances as official ambassadors for the 2012 London Olympics and the launch in 2016 of their collaborative mental health initiative, Heads Together, cemented their image as a modern, cohesive, working royal unit.
But, behind the scenes, tensions were quietly simmering as the brothers butted heads while each staked claims on their areas of ownership.
In the book, Myers revealed that the brothers’ early disagreements centred on their roles within the military.
Harry, who served a 10-week tour in Afghanistan in 2007–2008 as a forward air controller, had developed a deep bond with the armed forces and the veterans community. However, when he is crowned King, William will become their commander-in-chief.
Their shared passion for conservation – particularly in Africa, a place they had both visited since childhood – also became a point of contention as William made it a cornerstone of his work.
“It seems now that it was always inevitable that Harry would want more, and [there would be] fights over who got to be top dog when it came to the military or what charities they got to pick and work with,” Myers tells WHO over Zoom from London.
When Harry began dating Meghan in July 2016, the brothers’ relationship deteriorated rapidly as the two couples failed to get along.
“I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside,” Meghan explained of her in-laws in Netflix’s 2022 docuseries Harry & Meghan.
Kate’s surprising reaction to the rift
Myers revealed that Kate found Meghan “abrasive” and the two women did not hit it off.
The alleged poor treatment of palace aides soon became another sore point between both couples.
“Harry and Meghan’s attitude towards staff – people William and Catherine cared deeply about – set the couples on entirely different paths,” Myers wrote. “Following Harry and Meghan’s wedding, things were undeniably different. William and Catherine felt the Sussexes had an agenda.”
In early 2020, Harry and Meghan made the unprecedented decision to, as they put it, “step back” as senior working royals, relocating first to Canada and then to the United States. Contact between the couples has been minimal ever since.
While Kate has long been seen as the peacemaker between the siblings, she had finally reached her limit, believing it would be one problem after another if the brothers patched things up and Harry was persuaded to stay within the hierarchical royal system, forced below the Prince and the Princess of Wales.
“William was very sad, but Catherine had less interest than her husband in trying to persuade Harry to stay,” Myers explains. “She believed William and Harry’s fundamental differences as the ‘heir and the spare’, and the way that the brothers had been brought up during their childhoods meant that Harry would never be happy and would continue to want the spotlight rather than be a team player.”
Buy William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story by Russell Myers here.
